Martha pulled a beer and gave it to the customer who gave her three dollars in gold coins in return. "Cheers," he said before taking his beer and heading for a booth. Martha managed a smile in return but her mind was on other matters. She couldn't stop thinking about Tash and what she must be going through. Her beautiful sweet friend, she'd had her innocence completely ripped away from her. How could anyone do that? Every time she paused to think about it she began to seethe inwardly. She just wanted this shift to finish and this awful day to be over.

"Excuse me, excuse me!" the small blonde woman said, raising her voice as she received no recognition the first time around.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Martha said, realising she was a million miles away. "What can I get you?"

"A white wine thanks," the woman said, appealingly dressed in slim dark denim jeans and a low cut black top.

"The house ok?" Martha asked.

"Fine."

Martha poured the wine and gave it to the woman. "That will be $5.50 thanks." She collected the money and put it in the till.

"So is this the only bar in town?" the woman asked. "Sure is," Martha replied cheerfully, "why, you don't like the wine?"

The woman laughed. "No, the wine's great. I was wondering because I just moved here and I'm trying to suss out the place."

"Oh you just moved to Summer Bay? Well as you'll soon find out, this town's definitely only big enough for one bar, particularly since it's my Grandad who owns it," Martha joked. "I'm Martha by the way, welcome."

"Thanks," the woman said and shook Martha's proffered hand. "I'm Kate, the new cop in town."

"Really?" Martha said, now sounding very interested. "In that case you must know Jack Holden?" Kate looked at Martha and suddenly remembered what Jack had said his girlfriend's name was. Wow, Kate thought. She hadn't realised the competition was going to be this stiff. The girl behind the bar was – if Kate was being honest – very beautiful, not to mention tall and brunette, everything Kate wasn't. Still she'd moved to this town on a mission and beautiful girlfriend or not, she was planning on getting what she wanted. Besides, she was hardly a shrinking violet herself.

"Martha!" Kate exclaimed. "You must be the girlfriend, Jack mentioned you earlier."

"Oh really? Well don't listen to all the bad stuff," Martha said and they both laughed.

"Actually I'm meeting Jack here for a drink, I'm his new partner."

"Oh?" Martha was slightly taken aback by this. The beautiful woman standing in front of her was Jack's partner? She hadn't seen that one coming, not to mention the fact that she was already a drinking buddy. Martha immediately rebuked herself: don't be so petty, you are NOT going to turn into one of those clingy, jealous girlfriend types.

"Oh, that's great," Martha said to Kate. "It's about time he got a new partner. I hope he's not standing you up though?"

"Nah," Kate laughed. "I'm actually early. Oh wait, here's the man himself now," Kate said as Jack walked towards them both.

"Ahh, I see you two have met," Jack said, seeing them talking.

"Yeah we finally figured it out," Kate replied. "So Jack, this is the girl of your dreams huh?"

"Sure is," Jack said cheerfully, and leaning over the bar gave Martha a quick peck on the cheek in greeting.

"What can I get you Constable Holden?" Martha asked Jack.

"The usual thanks love."

Martha gave him a mock-glare and went to pull his beer.

"So you finally managed to get yourself a partner did you?" Martha said as she pulled the beer.

"Yeah, the funniest thing is Kate and I already knew each other from the academy where we trained together."

Martha glanced up quickly at this comment. "You know each other already?"

"Mmmm, it's good to have the old team reunited," Jack joked.

Remember Martha, no jealous girlfriend activity. As if to compensate she quickly said, "oh well I'm sure you two will have a lot to catch up on then. Why don't you to go sit down and I'll bring your drink over?"

"But you're working, we don't mind sitting at the bar."

"Nah, nah, don't worry about it, I'll just be serving customers and anyway, I don't want to listen to a lot of boring police talk." Jack laughed and much to Kate's pleasure Jack and she went to get themselves a seat at a booth with Martha looking on wondering just how well they knew each other at the academy.

Two hours later Martha's feet were aching but her shift had finally finished. As she cleaned down the benches the only customers left were her boyfriend and his new partner. They had been deep in conversation the whole night, chatting and laughing and joking about old times. Jack was now slightly drunk and there was no doubt in Martha's mind Kate was flirting with him. Just little things, like laughing too loudly at all his jokes, and Martha knew from experience just how bad Jack's jokes could be. If she was being honest with herself though she hadn't seen any flirting on Jack's behalf and if her relationship was so great, she should be able to totally trust him. So deciding to once again forgo the jealous girlfriend act she went over to the two of them.

"Hey guys, sorry to break up the party but I'm going to have to kick you two out. We're closing up."

"Wow, is that the time already? Time has flown." Jack commented.

"Sure has but I guess we had a lot to catch up on." Kate smiled sweetly at Jack and then looked at Martha. "I'm so sorry Martha I've been hogging your boyfriend all night, and it's not like I don't see him all day anyway."

Thanks for reminding me of that fact bitch Martha thought and was surprised at her own venom.

"Don't worry about it," Martha replied just as sweetly. "It's nice to have someone else looking after him for a change."

"Hey are you trying to pass me off?" Jack asked and put his arms playfully around her waist.

"Well I better be off guys, it was really nice meeting you Martha, and Jack, I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early."

Jack groaned. "Don't remind me. You ok getting home."

"Yeah my car's outside. See you tomorrow. Bye Martha."

"Bye," Martha said and both she and Jack watched as Kate left the bar. "She seems nice." Martha said.

"Yeah, it's weird how we both ended up in the same town."

"Yeah," Martha said. "What a coincidence," thinking it was anything but.

"Anyway, enough talk about Kate, do you want to come back to mine tonight?" and Jack nuzzled his face into Martha's neck.

"Jaaack, you smell of beer and no I don't want to come back to yours tonight."

"Oh, come on."

"No, I haven't got any of my stuff with me."

"Yeah, but you've already got some stuff at mine anyways."

"That's not the point. You have to get up early tomorrow and so do I. It's already midnight and I'm really tired."

"Ok then, in that case I'll walk you home."

"Well I drove here so I think it looks like I'll be taking you home." Martha commented dryly.

"What would I do without you hey?" Jack said and began kissing Martha's neck with Martha initially protesting until his caresses moved up to silence her mouth.